Moore's Bookshop, Moseley Road

[Adam Twycross]

Hello everyone

Yesterday I posted a thread asking about a specific building- 359 Moseley Road. The response was really wonderful, and I subsequently realised, partly due to a post from 2012 by this forum's late member Phil, that n.359 was well known to Moseley Road residents as the home of Moore's Book Store from the 1930s until at least the late 1960s.

So, this is a rather more specific follow-up, wondering whether anyone has any memories of Moore's book shop, or its proprietor, Howard Moore? Or perhaps knows of someone who might remember this little piece of Moseley Road history?

I would love to hear from anyone who can help- and thank you so much, everyone.

Very best wishes

Adam

 

[Astoness]

hoping some of our members can help you adam...fingers crossed

lyn

 

[Adam Twycross]

hoping some of our members can help you adam...fingers crossed

lyn

Thanks Lyn- be lovely to hear if anyone remembers this place!

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Was that a second hand bookshop?

 

[Adam Twycross]

Hello Michael- that's right. Phil had a great photo of the stretch of Moseley Road that it was on, circa 1968; it was next door to the Tallet's garage/showroom, and a few doors down from the Moseley Cinema. You can just see it on the far left of Phil's image (attached). Phil memorably called it the "dirty bookshop", and another forum poster recalled that you could buy or swap books there, including pulp thrillers and the like.

Does this ring a bell for you?

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Yes I knew that place. Around about late 50's in my late teens I wanted to buy Plato's Republic. (I spent a lot of times in the Stagedoor Club, the Trocadero, etc.,)
In the window at Moore's Bookshop I saw a book by Plato. Me and my friend went into the shop and the bookseller walked straight towards us clearly not welcoming us into the shop. I told him what I was looking for and he said that he had no such books by Plato, encouraging us toward the door. But you have some in the window, I said.
He reluctantly admitted that there were. It was a 5 volume edition of Plato's complete works which I still have. The price inside looks like £3.
In my mind that experience of the bookshop was like the TV comedy series called Black Books - around 20 years ago with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey; customers were never welcomed in the shop.

 

[Adam Twycross]

Yes I knew that place. Around about late 50's in my late teens I wanted to buy Plato's Republic. (I spent a lot of times in the Stagedoor Club, the Trocadero, etc.,)
In the window at Moore's Bookshop I saw a book by Plato. Me and my friend went into the shop and the bookseller walked straight towards us clearly not welcoming us into the shop. I told him what I was looking for and he said that he had no such books by Plato, encouraging us toward the door. But you have some in the window, I said.
He reluctantly admitted that there were. It was a 5 volume edition of Plato's complete works which I still have. The price inside looks like £3.
In my mind that experience of the bookshop was like the TV comedy series called Black Books - around 20 years ago with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey; customers were never welcomed in the shop.

Oh, that's such a fantastic tale; My wife and I are great fans of Black Books- how strange to think that Moore's was like that in the flesh! Thanks so much Michael, I really appreciate you sharing that with me.
Odd that he should act that way- one can only assume that you were not the type of customer he was after, perhaps! That might tally with what Phil remembered it as- a bit of a seedy sort of place, I'm assuming

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Well I suppose in my late teens we started dressing as teddy boys then in Italian suits then hippy dress, long hair beards, etc., Not the dress for a respectable book shop

 

[Adam Twycross]

Well I suppose in my late teens we started dressing as teddy boys then in Italian suits then hippy dress, long hair beards, etc., Not the dress for a respectable book shop

Ah, so maybe I've got it backwards a bit.... maybe more that it was rather old-fashioned. That would make sense, given that Moore had been running the store since the 1930s. Most interesting!

 

[sospiri]

Not quite like Soho there though, even in those days. But you never can tell as there used to be one almost on Cambridge Circus in Charing Cross Road, which used to have radio & other technical books in the window, but they were just a front for a dirty book shop. I used to pass it every time I went down to a shop called Crystals & Components, a Government surplus radio shop right on the Circus.

Maurice

 

[superdad3]

Yes I knew that place. Around about late 50's in my late teens I wanted to buy Plato's Republic. (I spent a lot of times in the Stagedoor Club, the Trocadero, etc.,)
In the window at Moore's Bookshop I saw a book by Plato. Me and my friend went into the shop and the bookseller walked straight towards us clearly not welcoming us into the shop. I told him what I was looking for and he said that he had no such books by Plato, encouraging us toward the door. But you have some in the window, I said.
He reluctantly admitted that there were. It was a 5 volume edition of Plato's complete works which I still have. The price inside looks like £3.
In my mind that experience of the bookshop was like the TV comedy series called Black Books - around 20 years ago with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey; customers were never welcomed in the shop.

How strange. I had an almost identical experience at the Lowe Brothers secondhand book shop which was in Moseley. This would be about 1968 - went in to look around and saw some books by Boswell in a locked case. asked if I could look at them & was told rudely they were too expensive [for me] and he slowly ushered me to the door. Never went back!

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Maybe that was the bookshop I used; it certainly sounds like it

 

[mikejee]

How strange. I had an almost identical experience at the Lowe Brothers secondhand book shop which was in Moseley. This would be about 1968 - went in to look around and saw some books by Boswell in a locked case. asked if I could look at them & was told rudely they were too expensive [for me] and he slowly ushered me to the door. Never went back!

Was that one close to the Prince of Wales. I always thoh they were ecpensive

 

[superdad3]

Was that one close to the Prince of Wales. I always thoh they were ecpensive

Yes, almost next door to Prince of Wales. A specialist antiquarian bookshop, probably why he didn't like the looks of me - a poverty struck ex student!

Lowe Brothers was one of the oldest of Birmingham's antiquarian bookshops. Originally in Newhall Street [well it was in 1910!]

Here's a snippet from an article in the Library Bulletin 1970 of Rochester Uni. N.Y. of all places [found by googling Lowe Brothers]:

"Lowe Brothers has removed from central Birmingham to suburban Moseley, and the younger Mr. Lowe, who succeeded to the management on the death of his father a few years ago, contents himself with opening his shop to occasional old-time customers a few days a year. For tax reasons it would be pointless for him to net more than a few thousand pounds annually, and the value of the books on his shelves increases more rapidly than any other investment he might find. So he devotes most of his time to attending the cricket matches within driving range."

Shop and building long gone. I don't think there are any antiquarian bookshops left in Brum or even a decent old fashioned secondhand bookshop.

 

[Adam Twycross]

Not quite like Soho there though, even in those days. But you never can tell as there used to be one almost on Cambridge Circus in Charing Cross Road, which used to have radio & other technical books in the window, but they were just a front for a dirty book shop. I used to pass it every time I went down to a shop called Crystals & Components, a Government surplus radio shop right on the Circus.

Maurice

How fun... a disguise window!

 

[Adam Twycross]

Yes, almost next door to Prince of Wales. A specialist antiquarian bookshop, probably why he didn't like the looks of me - a poverty struck ex student!

Lowe Brothers was one of the oldest of Birmingham's antiquarian bookshops. Originally in Newhall Street [well it was in 1910!]

Here's a snippet from an article in the Library Bulletin 1970 of Rochester Uni. N.Y. of all places [found by googling Lowe Brothers]:

"Lowe Brothers has removed from central Birmingham to suburban Moseley, and the younger Mr. Lowe, who succeeded to the management on the death of his father a few years ago, contents himself with opening his shop to occasional old-time customers a few days a year. For tax reasons it would be pointless for him to net more than a few thousand pounds annually, and the value of the books on his shelves increases more rapidly than any other investment he might find. So he devotes most of his time to attending the cricket matches within driving range."

Shop and building long gone. I don't think there are any antiquarian bookshops left in Brum or even a decent old fashioned secondhand bookshop.

This would certainly explain why customers might have felt a bit unwelcome, if the shop was largely for existing customers... and there was little reason to sell much stock.

Moore's itself is still feeling a bit mysterious and out of reach though!

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Mike’s experience is certainly like my experience in the Moseley shop. However, if they didn’t move to Mosely to the 70‘s, I was then living and working on London

 

[Adam Twycross]

Mike’s experience is certainly like my experience in the Moseley shop. However, if they didn’t move to Mosely to the 70‘s, I was then living and working on London

Aha! Yes, of course you're right- I hadn't put two and two together about the dates; so your original thoughts were probably spot on, and it was indeed Moore's that you were in. That's really wonderful, thank you! Indeed, thanks to all of you for your help!

 

[Michael_Ingram]

There was another well known bookshop whose name has slipped my mind on the corner of New Street and Corporation Street that I often bought books from. In the 19 century, before Corporation Street was built the artist Burne-Jones was in that shop and saw a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury tales but could not afford to buy it. However, he was with his friend William Morris who snapped it up. This inspired Morris’s book the Kelmscott Chaucer which Burne-Jones illustrated

 

[Adam Twycross]

There was another well known bookshop whose name has slipped my mind on the corner of New Street and Corporation Street that I often bought books from. In the 19 century, before Corporation Street was built the artist Burne-Jones was in that shop and saw a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury tales but could not afford to buy it. However, he was with his friend William Morris who snapped it up. This inspired Morris’s book the Kelmscott Chaucer which Burne-Jones illustrated

Now that's a great bookshop claim to fame!

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Sorry got my memory mixed up. The book that Morris bought there was Morte d’arthur which Mooris later published with Aubrey Beardsley illustrations. Anyway, the bookshop was Cornish’s. Doh!

 

[Adam Twycross]

Sorry got my memory mixed up. The book that Morris bought there was Morte d’arthur which Mooris later published with Aubrey Beardsley illustrations. Anyway, the bookshop was Cornish’s. Doh!

I think that's the edition my mum had in her house as I was growing up- she had an interest in that area... It may have been a later edition, but certainly had the Beardsley illustrations!